About the Author

About the Author is an International Master, a former National Open and American Open Cyrus Lakdawala Champion, and a six-time State Champion. He has been teaching chess for over 30 years, and coaches some of the top junior players in the US. Also by the author: 1...d6: Move by Move A Ferocious Opening Repertoire Capablanca: Move by Move Play the London System The Caro-Kann: Move by Move The Four Knights: Move by Move The Slav: Move by Move Contents About the Author 3 Series Foreword 7 Bibliography 8 Introduction 9 1 The Pseudo Dragon 17 2 Classical Lines from White 59 3 The Austrian Attack 112 4 To Nowhere: 4 Íg5 165 5 Íc4 Cro-Magnon Lines 186 6 The Fianchetto Line 210 7 Coward’s Variation 231 8 Odds and Ends 266 9 The Averbakh Variation 288 10 Offbeat Averbakh Lines 331 11 Anti-Queen’s Pawn Lines 355 12 The English 373 Index of Variations 392 Index of Complete Games 399 Series Foreword Move by Move is a series of opening books which uses a question-and-answer format. One of our main aims of the series is to replicate - as much as possible - lessons between chess teachers and students. All the way through, readers will be challenged to answer searching questions and to complete exercises, to test their skills in chess openings and indeed in other key aspects of the game. It’s our firm belief that practising your skills like this is an excellent way to study chess openings, and to study chess in general. Many thanks go to all those who have been kind enough to offer inspiration, advice and assistance in the creation of Move by Move. We’re really excited by this series and hope that readers will share our enthusiasm. John Emms Everyman Chess 7 Introduction I recall a game I played during a lunch break in seventh grade against one of the history teachers. He opened with 1 e4. At the time I read Canadian Chess Chat magazine, which was permeated with the games of Canada’s chess god, Duncan Suttles, who opened 1...g6! on every white first move. W________W [rhb1kgn4] [0p0p0pDp] [WDWDWDpD] [DWDWDWDW] [WDWDPDWD] [DWDWDWDW] [P)P)W)P)] [$NGQIBHR] W--------W Now from my rudimentary understanding, I reasoned that there was no higher chess authority than Suttles, so like a faithful acolyte I dutifully followed suit and played 1...g6!. The history teacher closed his eyes and nodded wisely, as if confirming some long-held suspicion about my intelligence level. Then he issued this ominous prediction: “You have just lost the game!” “Why!?” I whined vehemently. The wise teacher went on to explain: “Both players should fight for the centre of the board, therefore 1...g6 is a weak move which hands White central control.” Even then, intuition warned me that something was off with the teacher’s bogus assessment. Forty years later, I confidently assert that the teacher was wrong, and the Modern Defence is sound, and the stats are there to prove it. Luckily, I didn’t believe him and play the Modern to this day. The Modern is indeed a scary, counter-intuitive opening and the rules which govern are quite distinct from those in other, more orthodox openings. We Modernists view life on the chess board with extraterrestrial, alien perception. After all, as the teacher pointed out, 9 The Modern Defence: Move by Move Black, in hypermodern fashion, cedes White central control without a fight. But giving away the centre is not done with a motivation of generosity or trepidation. The plan is to later chip away at White’s centre from the sides and tear it down. The second scary issue people have with the Modern (as John Watson once pointed out) is the fact that many of the lines look similar, except for some minute, imperceptible shift, and that one tiny shift may completely alter your strategy from the other look-alike variation. The structure alters in astonishingly disorienting ways, like some alien shape shifter, who appears differently each day. Both we and our opponents walk theoretical corridors on unsteady legs, but this is not such a big problem if you think about it. Have you ever eaten a curry so hot that there actually is no taste except for the all- encompassing bonfire in your mouth (I am Indian and have endured this experience many, many times)? The Modern is a bit like this: it is so complicated that it is easy to play! If chaos and complexity increase past the limits of the understanding of most club players – or even GMs for that matter – the participants basically tend to play by feel. This in turn means that the Modern player is accustomed to such chaos, while White encounters it rarely and is often left groping about for the right plan. If you just go through the games of this book and study the great Modernists and post- Modernists, like: Duncan Suttles, Ray Keene, Jon Speelman, Nigel Davies, Colin McNab, Tiger Hillarp Person, Zurab Azmaiparashvili and Peter Svidler, I bet you will not be overwhelmed and boggled by the complexity, unlike many of your unfortunate opponents, who don’t encounter Modern all that often. The Mechanics of the Modern Defence Unlike classical, solid opening lines like 1 e4 e5, the Caro-Kann, or the Queen’s Gambit Declined, the Modern doesn’t fight for central control, or solidity, or even seek to equalize. We begin asymmetrically and challenge White from our very first move. For years I endured from lower-rated players playing White, the Exchange Slav and the Exchange French, both with the intent to take the life out of positions, and allow my lower-rated opponents to deaden the position and draw. A few years back I got tired of this weasely strategy from my more cowardly opponents and added my childhood favourite 1...g6 against any first move. I noticed with shock that after a year my stats were actually equal to or better than with the Slav, the Caro-Kann, the French and the Sicilian. The number of draws went way down, and my losses in turn thankfully did not increase (too much at least!). I am normally associated with super-solid lines like the Slav and Caro, but now add 1...g6 (and the Modern’s introverted brother 1...d6) as one of my main openings as Black. 1...g6 Against Everything! The Modern represents a one-size-fits-all line. We play it against virtually every (well, okay, maybe not against 1 b3!) main white first move choice: 1 e4, 1 d4, 1 c4, and 1 Ìf3. Here is an old school Modern, one of my all time favourites: 10 Introduction Game 1 D.Janosevic-D.Suttles Belgrade 1969 1 e4 g6 W________W [rhb1kgn4] [0p0p0pDp] [WDWDWDpD] [DWDWDWDW] [WDWDPDWD] [DWDWDWDW] [P)P)W)P)] [$NGQIBHR] W--------W Enter the rabbit hole, my friend. I still remember the initial shock I received when first going over the game in 1969; a mind-altering experience. 2 d4 Íg7 3 Ìf3 d6 4 Ìc3 c6 Back in the old days we all played ...c6 Moderns since it never occurred to us to play 4...a6!. What are the differences between ...c6 and ...a6? Question: I think 4...a6! is an improvement for this reason: in the ...c6 lines Black often plays Answer: ...b5, ...a6, ...Íb7, and ...c5 later on. Well, in the ...a6! lines we cut out the single redundancy of the ...c6 middle man, and gain a tempo by simply eliminating an often unnecessary move. 5 Íe2 Ìd7 6 0-0 Ìh6!? Hallucinogens are optional. As always, Suttles imposes his anarchistic Suttleszian world view upon the board. You must keep in context that in 1969 Yoko hadn’t yet messed everything up with The Beatles. We all dressed outlandishly, all the while thinking aberrant, odd thoughts and doing groovy, psychedelic, perplexing things! 11 The Modern Defence: Move by Move W________W [rDb1kDW4] [0pDn0pgp] [WDp0WDph] [DWDWDWDW] [WDW)PDWD] [DWHWDNDW] [P)PDB)P)] [$WGQDRIW] W--------W Black’s move has to be bad, right? Question: Good and bad, virtue and sin go out the window in these 60’s Modern Answer: dreamscapes. Black’s eccentric last move keeps open possibilities of ...f6 and ...Ìf7 or even ...f5. Normal would be something like 6...Ëc7 7 a4 Ìgf6 8 h3 0-0, V.Topalov-R.Rauschen- bach, Frankfurt (rapid) 1997, but Suttles never ever played Moderns like this one. 7 Íg5 Provoking ...f6. The trouble is Suttles probably intended to play the move anyway. Better was 7 Îe1 Ëc7 8 a4 0-0 9 h3 Êh8!? 10 Íc4 e5 with an edge to White, E.Jimenez Zerquera- D.Suttles, Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970. 7...f6 8 Íe3 0-0 9 d5 f5!? IM Andrew Martin suggests 9...c5, keeping White’s knight out of d4. 10 Ìd4 W________W [rDb1W4kD] [0pDn0Wgp] [WDp0WDph] [DWDPDpDW] [WDWHPDWD] [DWHWGWDW] [P)PDB)P)] [$WDQDRIW] W--------W 12 Introduction White wins a pawn after 10 dxc6 bxc6 11 Ìd4 Ìe5 12 Ìxc6! Ìxc6 13 Ëd5+ Ìf7 14 Ëxc6 Íd7, but those two open files should give Black some Benko Gambit-style compensation. 10...Íxd4!? What the hell!? Question: No, this isn’t a dream, or a move played on the theory that a few bitter greens Answer: enhance the salad. We are reminded of the lyrics of the Gordon Lightfoot song: “Carefree Highway, let me slip away, slip away on you.” Are you confused yet? I’m not sure if this move deserves a ‘??’ or a ‘!!’, so I hedged my bets and gave it one of each.

Load more